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In 2016, only 3.8 million of the 21 million Americans with substance use disorder (SUD) received treatment. As the opioid crisis persists, states have been working to identify new SUD treatment approaches, but the Medicaid Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) exclusion has historically put certain residential health care facilities out of reach for many Medicaid […]

Lawrence, Massachusetts, a city that has struggled with poverty and poor health, is now a Culture of Health Prize winner due in part to state policies that bolster the city’s efforts to advance health equity and address social needs. These supportive state policies include guidelines governing the local hospital’s community health needs assessments, its community […]

Pre-exposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, is a comprehensive HIV intervention that combines an antiretroviral drug, testing, and counseling to reduce new HIV infections. NASHP brought together officials from Maryland, Michigan, and Connecticut in a PrEP Policy Learning Series to learn and report on how states are effectively deploying and improving their PrEP initiatives to save […]

During the 2018 legislative session, 28 states passed 45 laws to curb the rising cost of prescription drugs. In addition to legislative solutions, states are taking administrative action to better manage state spending on Medicaid pharmacy benefits. Ohio, West Virginia, and Vermont offer examples of states taking innovative administrative approaches to rein in drug costs. […]

With elections just three weeks away, governors’ races in 36 states – with 17 open seats – are down to the wire and important health policy issues, such as Medicaid expansion, stabilizing insurance markets, public options, and prescription drug price controls, are at play in most of them. The National Academy for State Health Policy […]

Peggy Bailey is director of the Health Integration Project at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Amy Clary is a senior policy associate at NASHP. States use a range of policy levers to address the roughly 80 percent of factors affecting health that are outside the realm of clinical care, such as access […]

Karen Palombo is the substance use disorder (SUD) team lead in the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s mental health and substance use division who helps shape state intervention and treatment policies. Before joining state government, she worked in hospital, mental health, and SUD treatment settings for nine years as a licensed chemical dependency counselor. […]

Providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities in compliance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Fair Housing Act requirements is an important role for housing providers, and state leaders can help guide them through the process. NASHP recently added new resources exploring HUD’s reasonable accommodations requirements to its Housing and Health Resources for […]

Should states integrate their health insurance and human services eligibility and enrollment systems? Some state officials are weighing this question now that their revamped, Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage systems have been operational for several years and most of the early, initial glitches have been repaired. However, there are multiple factors to consider, some […]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently released a proposed rule to change public charge determination policies. Currently, the immigration status of individuals can be affected and individuals can be denied lawful permanent residence if they are determined to be a “public charge” based on their enrollment in cash assistance programs, such as Temporary Assistance […]